Monday, October 26, 2015

A Giant Sequoia Dedicated to President George Bush

In 1992, US President George Bush (senior) stood under a giant
sequoia tree inside Giant Sequoia National Monument in eastern
California, and made a Presidential Proclamation promising to protect,
preserve and restore all of the sequoia groves on National Forest System
lands throughout the Sierra Nevada. The tree under which George Bush
stood and delivered and signed the proclamation was named the President
George Bush Tree.
The stone plaque at the site reads: “THIS
GIANT SEQUOIA TREE IS DESIGNATED THE GEORGE BUSH TREE IN CELEBRATION OF
THE PRESIDENT’S ACTION AT THIS SITE ON JULY 14, 1992 TO MANAGE GIANT
SEQUOIA IN PERPETUITY AS UNIQUE OBJECTS OF BEAUTY AND ANTIQUITY FOR THE
BENEFIT AND INSPIRATION OF ALL PEOPLE.”

The tree is located at the bottom of a grove called the Freeman Creek
Sequoia Grove, a 1,700-acre patch of forest off the Lloyd Meadow Road
(Road 22S82), on the Western Divide Ranger District within the Giant
Sequoia National Monument on the Sequoia National Forest.
The
Freeman Creek Grove, also known as Lloyd Meadow Grove, is the largest
unlogged grove outside of a national park. This grove is the easternmost
grove of giant sequoias and is considered to be among the most recently
established. There are estimated to be over 2,000 sequoias in the grove
with a diameter of over 5 feet, and more than 100 trees with 15-foot
diameter trunks. A couple of trees have diameters of 20 feet. The
largest tree in the grove measures 255 feet high with a diameter of 23
feet. It is listed as the 29th largest Sequoia tree in existence.